Few teams in the nation, nonetheless the Horizon League, have as many
experienced weapons on the perimeter than Cleveland State. The good news is the
backcourt returns intact after finishing with nearly a .500 record a year ago.
The bad news is the frontcourt still has some major holes and Coach Gary Waters
needs to find a way to stop opposing big men from having such an easy time
scoring on the Vikings.

Key Losses:
F Nigel Ajere, F Jared Cunningham

Key Newcomers:

Devon Long and Ludovic Ndaye will do what they can to help the frontcourt, but
it is asking a little much to rely heavily on freshmen. At the least those two
need to be able to come in off the bench and grab some rebounds and play solid
defense. If they can do that, this is a team that has more than enough talent to
reach the postseason. The Vikings also add Davis Ware and point guards Sebastian
Douglas and Keith Mackie to the roster.

Backcourt:

The amount of talent in the backcourt is simply amazing. Norris Cole, Jeremy
Montgomery, Trevon Harmon and D’Aundray Brown all averaged at least 28 minutes
per game and were the team’s top four scorers a year ago. Cole is the do-it-all
point guard. The 6-2 senior is coming off a season in which he led the Vikings
with 16.3 points and 4.4 assists. Montgomery is the best shooter of the group
and connected on 40.4 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc. Harmon
struggled at times with his outside shooting in 2009-2010, but the 6-1 junior
can score in other ways when his shot is not falling. Brown may be the most
important guard on the team because of his ability to hit the glass. Despite
being just 6-4, Brown spent a lot of time at the power forward spot and led the
squad with 5.6 rebounds per game. As if those four are not enough, Anthony Wells
showed some potential during his freshman campaign and could develop into a
solid contributor.

Frontcourt:

Last season the
four guards started a majority of the games with Aaron Pogue manning the paint.
At 6-9 and 275 pounds, Pogue has the size to clog the paint, but he needs to
have a much better junior campaign if CSU hopes to be much better than they were
last season. Pogue is not much of a scorer and most of his points will come off
of offensive rebounds or when the defense is too worried about the guys on the
perimeter. Pogue is also not much of a shot blocking threat and that has really
hurt the overall defense of the team. There is hope that 6-11 junior Joe Latas
can live up to his potential and start playing some real minutes, but last year
he averaged less than five per game. Tim Kamczyc and Charlie Woods both showed
some promise as freshmen, but probably not enough to unseat one of the guards in
the starting lineup.

Who to Watch:

And finding a real
power forward or center may be the key to this season. Cleveland State can win
some games with their backcourt, but they can only carry this team so far. Not
only does somebody have to step up and be a consistent scoring threat in the
paint, but somebody has to start blocking some shots as well. Pogue can handle
some of the scoring, but Kamczyc, Woods, Latas or one of the newcomers needs to
emerge as a solid defender and rebounder or this team will get beat on the glass
and on the defensive end again this year.

Final Projection:

There is potential for this to be a good team, but it is pretty much the same
group that could not win away from home last year and almost always failed to
play good interior defense. Unless one of the underclassmen can change the
defensive problems, Cleveland State will spend the year hovering around the .500
mark yet again and be a borderline postseason team.

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About Joel Welser

ColumnistCollege Preview Editor

Contactjwelser@collegehoops.net

Background

"Joel Welser does a tremendous job covering college basketball. He gives his readers knowledgeable and insightful information on college hoops." -Ernie Zeigler, Head Basketball Coach, Central Michigan University "Joel Welser writes clean, knowledgeable copy that always hits deadline." -Greg Eno, former editor-in-chief, Motor City Sports Magazine Growing up in Michigan, Joel Welser inherited a love for Big Ten sports. After defying all family traditions and not going to Michigan State, Joel headed out west to earn his bachelor degree from California State University, Northridge in Cinema Television Arts, specializing in screenwriting. For reasons still unknown, after his stint in Hollywood, Joel headed back to Michigan where he remains to this day complaining about the cold. Joel has found a successful formula with the popular top 144 series at collegehoops.net and has also written college football and college basketball previews and articles for various websites and magazines.